‘No one cares’ – North West residents threaten shutdown over water shortage

Mokgola residents are threatening to embark on a protest again today, if their demands for water are not answered.

They barricaded the R49 linking Zeerust in the North West and Botswana capital Gaborone with trees and stones on Tuesday, making it impossible to exit or enter the village, 20 kilometres from Zeerust.

The protest was otherwise peaceful, as more than 20 members of the South African Police Service (Saps) were there to maintain law and order.

ALSO READ: SA’s water crisis 20 years in the making

Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality sent officials as well as technical teams to restore water in the community.

The 10,000 residents agreed the road would be cleared on Tuesday and Wednesday while the technical team restored water, but threatened to resume the protest on Thursday if there was no water in the communal taps.

Itumeleng Monnana, 31, blamed bad management and corruption for the water shortage.

“We had stable water supply just before 2006, before the tender system was brought in our village.

“We maintained our own water supply and paid rates before the district municipality assumed their responsibility around those years.

“[The municipality] has dismally failed to supply water to merely less than 15,000 people, how incompetent.

“I think the problem is the power struggle in the tender system, the appointment of incompetent service providers who have no clue what they are doing,” Monnana said.

The municipality is the water authority of Mokgola and many other villages around Zeerust.

Although the Kgosi Ramotshere Moiloa local municipality does not have jurisdiction to run water affairs, it does send a water tank during funerals to all 29 villages covered by the municipality.

“In the past weekend when we were burying my brother, there was literally no water,” said Modimola Kale, 38.

“We had to ask those with bakkies to help us travel to other villages to see if we cannot get a few buckets of water for us to prepare meals for people who attended the funeral.

READ MORE: Billions spent on water projects, but Limpopo villages still dry

“We were told by the municipality the truck they normally use was broken and there was nothing they could do to help us.

“Imagine in a funeral you have no water, it is very bad and no one cares.”

Kale said the villagers who could afford it were installing boreholes in their yards, which could cost between R30,000 to R50,000.

Those who could not afford to install boreholes were buying water from bakkies and carts trading water.

Those who could not even afford that used wheelbarrows or their heads to carry water, which they bought from those with a borehole.

A 20-litre bucket of water costs about R5.

Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality executive mayor Khumalo Molefe said: “The community is sharing water with livestock and our mandate is to provide water for human consumption.”

He cited population growth, theft of Eskom cables, vandalism of infrastructure, which creates high levels of water loss, the high rate of illegal water connections and the community using water for livestock instead of human consumption as reasons for the shortage.

“The current shortage of water that has caused the community to close the road was caused by theft of cables from two boreholes, while on the other four boreholes, we have experienced voltage drop on the side of Eskom.

“Eskom will be on site to fix the problem,” he added.

NOW READ: Mpumalanga water crisis: Health and sanitation concerns as millions go down the drain